It was a euphoric Saturday evening for TNT Katropa, who secured a semifinal slot in the PBA Governors’ Cup after a convincing 136-124 win over Phoenix at the Ynares Sports Center in Antipolo City.
But the celebration immediately ended as soon as the buzzer sounded.
Katropa Head coach Jong Uichico said they will have to go back to the drawing board and find a way to beat the Meralco Bolts in a best-of-five encounter on the penultimate stage.
“We go back to sleep tonight, wake up tomorrow, and prepare for our game on Tuesday,” said Uichico, who will face Meralco coach Norman Black in a playoff series for the first time.
TNT enter the the semifinals as the hottest team in the league, having doused a red-hot Ginebra side in their final game of the season then trumped the Phoenix Fuel Masters and their explosive import Eugene Phelps in the quarterfinals.
They’ve cruised through the season, but Uchico knows how fragile momentum is at this point of the run.
“We’ll enjoy the win for a minute, and when we step out of this coliseum, we’ll prepare for the next game.”
The series starts on Tuesday, with the top-seeded TnT coming in as the clear favorites. But Uichico is wary of the Bolts, adding that it will not be an easy task for TNT Katropa.
Although they have defeated the Norman Black-coached side earlier in the conference, Uichico is still wary of the potential threat Meralco possesses.
The veteran mentor also made special mention of Meralco import Allen Durham, who will be the focus of TNT’s defense.
“Both teams improved in the course of the tournament so we’ve got our work cut out for us,” he said.
“Durham is very dominating. We have to do the best we can defensively.”
